It incorporates so much good stuff into one project! Collaboration, color wheel discussion, self-portrait and drawing principles, and the list goes on. It’s especially cool to see the improvement kids make in drawing as they get older (there were drawings from all grades in the mural). Although it is a fair amount of work to put together, this art project is definitely something that all the kids (and community members) will love to look at. Finally, the kids who participated can feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that they contributed and that as part of a team, they accomplished something they could never do on their own. Great job, Rachel!

As teachers, we love finding free resources. So naturally, my heart leaped when I found two articles about hundreds of free art books you can download from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Click here to read the article about the Getty’s books and click here to read about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s books.

The article also contained links to articles about images being put into the public domain for free use. Hooray for open educational resources! Looking for more openly licensed (free to use!) K-12 content? Click here to check out Open Culture’s section on K-12.

How is it March already!? This blows my mind! Anyway, remember the snowflake and Valentine’s Day pattern art projects I posted recently? Well, I made one more of those, but this time, they’re clovers for St. Patrick’s Day! The basic idea is that you fill in each section with solid color or a pattern. Each one will turn out very different, but still pretty cool! Again, you can let your students make their own from scratch by letting them trace different sized clovers on their own paper instead of using the printable below.

I recently blogged about a DIY Zentangle (patterns) art project I ran into and loved. So I made my own version using snowflake shapes. It was so fun, that I had to make another one… with hearts for Valentine’s Day!

If you have an older grade class and you’re looking for a more complex project, you could use your school’s die-cut machine to cut our a bunch of card-stock hearts of varying sizes. Then let your students create their own version of the printable I made. Just warn them not to create too many sections or too small of sections. This will help ensure that ti doesn’t take them FOREVER to complete it!

I recently came across the following picture and I instantly wanted to try making one!

I think it’d be even cooler with holiday themed shapes like hearts, clovers, snowflakes, etc. So I played around on my computer and came up with this. If you teach a lower grade class, maybe have your students color a section with a single color rather than trying to add the complexity of coming up with a pattern for that sections. Feel free to try it and let me know how it goes!

I’ve been working with my friends over at the Roylco Little Fingers, Big Art blog to put together something special for you! This week, I’ll be launching my Christmas giveway with a special prize for one lucky winner! Check back this week for a chance to enter!

I’m not a super-awesome artist. And I’m not the world’s best art teacher either. But I try my best to give my kids exposure to a variety of art experiences. I recently came across the art concept called Tangles. These cool pattern drawings blow my mind! But when you see how they’re broken down into steps, they’re totally (awesomely!) doable. You can find of Tangle pattern ideas, by searching “Tangle Pattern” on Pinterest! I can’t wait to try these with my class! Here are some of my favorites:

Also check out my post on cool geometric coloring pages for upper grades!
You can find all kinds of cool pages like the one below!